Twins 6, Tigers 4: Road warriors

After the debacle that happened last night, the Twins struck quickly in the first on a solo dinger from Brian Dozier (23). In the second inning they piranha’d a run on sacrifice bunt, scoring Byron Buxton. Miguel Sano doubled that score with a 2-run blast to left in the 3rd inning, giving Ervin Santana a 4-0 lead.

Now, stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Tigers came back.

John Hicks hit a sacrifice fly in the 4th inning. In the 5th, 2 runs scored on passed balls, a 3rd run scored on a Nick Castellanos single. Ervin was cruising through 3 innings, but seemed to just lose it in the 4th and 5th. Santana’s day was done after the 5th: 5.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K.

The bullpens traded a bunch of zeroes until the 8th inning. Byron Buxton hit a single to score Eddie Rosario. A passed ball made the situation 2nd/3rd with 1 out. Ehire Adrianza hit a sac-fly for the RBI to push the lead to 6-4. Both runs were charged to Bruce Rondon, who threw 9 pitches (1 strike) for two walks. His departure was cheered by the Detroit crowd.

Tyler Duffey got 3 outs in the 7th and 2 in the 8th before being relieved by Trevor Hildenberger. Hildy struck out Justin Upton to end the inning.

The Twins went quietly in the top of the 9th, setting up for a nail-biting bottom of the inning.

Hildy was tasked with getting the save and got Castellanos looking on 3 pitches. The next batter John Hicks grounded out to 3rd. Victor Martinez grounded to 2nd but it got by Dozier for a single. But Hildy struck out James McCann to end the game. That’s his first career save!

The Twins closed out a very good road trip 4-1, and will go back to Target Field for a huge series against the Indians.

Studs:

The bullpen

Miguel Sano: 1-5, HR, 2 RBI

Brian Dozier: 2-5, HR, RBI

Eddie Rosario: 2-3, BB, 2 R

Duds:

NO DUDS TWINS WIN.

ROBOT ROLL CALL: